An investigation has brought forward allegations that the Kamala Harris campaign is manipulating social media platforms to increase support and block critical content. The Federalist reports that Harris’ team coordinated on Discord to direct followers in boosting her image on Reddit and X, using tactics to mislead viewers on her popularity.
The report reveals that Harris staffers encouraged coordinated actions on Reddit, including mass up-voting and down-voting, to create an appearance of widespread support. Thousands of posts related to Harris reportedly gathered millions of upvotes and over 400,000 comments, with a large portion of these posts ranking among the top in Reddit’s “Politics” section.
Elon Musk launching an investigation into Harris campaign's manipulation of social media platforms?
About time someone looked into this! Harris campaign busted for "astroturfing" on Reddit, now caught red-handed again.
When will people learn that fake support doesn't equal…
— Stop Socialist Tyranny (@endlibtyranny) November 4, 2024
On X, Harris’ team allegedly worked to evade the platform’s “community notes” feature, which fact-checks misleading posts. The report suggests that volunteers were directed to dislike unfavorable community notes, effectively suppressing them and allowing pro-Harris content to circulate without challenges.
Are these fake pollsters, social media influencers & goof- ball celebrities being paid to support Kamaliar Harris?
— 🇺🇸 Clayton⚔️Thompson 🗽 (@Sam695411) November 3, 2024
Critics have also raised questions about Google’s role. Reports indicate that the Harris campaign altered headlines in search results to reflect favorably on her, even without the knowledge of the original news organizations. X’s CEO Elon Musk announced that he has opened an investigation into Harris’ campaign activity on X, sparking further attention on the alleged manipulation.